Doctor Who: Who-ology (Dr Who)
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CAPTAIN JACK HARKNESS
played by JOHN BARROWMAN
First regular Doctor Who appearance: The Empty Child (2005)
Final regular Doctor Who appearance: Journey’s End (2008)
Final guest Doctor Who appearance: The End of Time, Part Two (2010)
Born in Scotland, John Barrowman was brought up in the USA, where he studied performing arts in San Diego – training that would bring him back to London and his West End stage debut in the musical Anything Goes. A skilled singer and dancer, Barrowman has played many stage roles, but his casting as Captain Jack Harkness in Doctor Who in 2005 turned him into an international screen star. As the lead in Doctor Who spin-off Torchwood, the actor has amassed a huge fan following, and has since appeared in TV series on both sides of the Atlantic including Hustle, Desperate Housewives and Arrow, released bestselling albums and books, and presented the Saturday night BBC entertainment show Tonight’s the Night.
Captain Jack Harkness is a conman, rogue and 51st-century Casanova in one. Killed by the Daleks on the Game Station, the former Time Agent was brought back to life by Rose’s Vortex powers, and this left him unable to die. Jack’s adventures throughout time brought him to Cardiff and command of Torchwood, where he continued to defend the Earth.
And another thing: Jack came from the Boeshane Peninsula, where he claims his nickname was ‘the Face of Boe’.
DONNA NOBLE
played by CATHERINE TATE
First Doctor Who appearance: The Runaway Bride (2006)
First regular Doctor Who appearance: Partners in Crime (2008)
Final regular Doctor Who appearance: Journey’s End (2008)
Last guest Doctor Who appearance: The End of Time, Part Two (2010)
Catherine Tate is one of Britain’s foremost character actors, with the award-winning Catherine Tate Show showcasing her talent for character comedy with creations such as the foul-mouthed Nan and schoolgirl Lauren. Following her guest appearance as Donna Noble in the 2006 Doctor Who Christmas special, Catherine was tempted back for a full-time TARDIS residency in 2008. She has since appeared in the film Gulliver’s Travels (2010) and in the American version of The Office.
Donna Noble used to be oblivious to the world around her – she was more excited about a new flavour of crisps than a spaceship hanging over London on Christmas Day. Then she met the Doctor. Long after her first adventure in the TARDIS, Donna finally tracked the Doctor down and they travelled the universe together, encountering Adipose, Pyroviles, Vespiforms and Agatha Christie – but not Noddy. Without Donna, Davros and the Daleks would have destroyed reality itself, but there was a price. If Donna ever remembers her adventures with the Doctor, it will destroy her mind.
And another thing: In 2011, Catherine Tate and David Tennant reunited in the Wyndham’s Theatre’s production of Much Ado About Nothing.
THE TENTH DOCTOR’S RULES FOR COMPANIONS
Rule 1: ‘Don’t wander off.’
HELLO SWEETIE
‘Shall we do diaries, then? Where are we this time?’
River Song, Silence in the Library
We need to talk about River Song, the most timey-wimey of the Doctor’s, erm, friends. She’s not exactly a companion, but her significance in the Doctor’s lives is vast. As time travellers, their shared encounters are experienced out of order, which can make it all a bit confusing – for everybody, including the Doctor. Here, in full, is the timeline of River Song, aka Melody Pond, aka Melody Malone, aka the Doctor’s other half. Well, as far as we can tell at the moment, anyway.
Born as Melody Pond on Demon’s Run, the daughter of Amy and Rory (52nd century – A Good Man Goes to War)
Kidnapped by Madame Kovarian and raised at Graystark Hall Orphanage on Earth by the Silence as a weapon to kill the Doctor (1960s – Day of the Moon)
Shot as a young girl by Amy Pond in a Florida warehouse (1969 – The Impossible Astronaut)
Regenerates for the first time in a back alley in New York City (1970 – Day of the Moon)
Travels to Leadworth and, calling herself Mels, befriends young Amy and Rory so she can grow up with them (1990s–2000s – Let’s Kill Hitler)
Forces the Doctor to take her back to Berlin, 1938, to kill Adolf Hitler (2011 – Let’s Kill Hitler)
Shot by Hitler, Mels regenerates into the woman who will become River Song (1938 – Let’s Kill Hitler)
Attempting to complete the mission she was trained for, River tries to poison the Doctor. Shortly before the Doctor’s death, she uses her remaining regenerations to save him (1938 – Let’s Kill Hitler)
Taken by the Doctor, Amy and Rory to the best hospital in the universe. When she wakes, she finds a police box-shaped diary next to her bed (52nd century – Let’s Kill Hitler)
Enrols to study archaeology at the Luna University, gaining a Doctorate (52nd century – Let’s Kill Hitler)
Madame Kovarian returns, forcing River to complete the task she was trained to do (52nd century – Closing Time)
At Lake Silencio, while wearing the NASA spacesuit, River fails to kill the Doctor (22 April 2011 – The Wedding of River Song)
This leads to all sorts of timey-wimey problems, involving Emperor Churchill, secret agents, the Silence and pyramids (22 April 2011, probably – The Wedding of River Song)
River marries the Doctor – possibly (22 April 2011 – The Wedding of River Song)
The timeline is put right and River kills the Doctor at Lake Silencio (we’ll explain later) (22 April 2011 – The Wedding of River Song)
Imprisoned at the Stormcage facility for killing the best man she’s ever known. The Doctor immediately springs her to go on a date to Calderon, although it doesn’t go to plan as two older versions of herself gate-crash the party – including a River from the future who is about to visit Darillium (52nd century – The Wedding of River Song, First Night, Last Night)
Continually breaks out of prison to have lots of exploits with the Doctor. These (possibly) include a picnic at Asgard, trips to Easter Island and the Bone Meadows, and other adventures involving the dam-building Jim the Fish, a euphonium, a biplane and Marilyn and a transmuted Queen of England (52nd century – various)
The Doctor throws River a surprise birthday party during the 1814 London Frost Fair. Stevie Wonder provides the tunes (1814 – A Good Man Goes to War)
On the day Melody is taken from Demon’s Run by Madame Kovarian, adult River arrives to say hi to her shocked mum and dad – Amy and Rory (52nd century – A Good Man Goes to War)
A TARDIS-blue envelope arrives, summoning River to Lake Silencio where she witnesses herself killing the Doctor (22 April 2011 – The Impossible Astronaut)
Assists the Doctor in defeating the Silents’ invasion of Earth (1969 – The Impossible Astronaut / Day of the Moon)
Back to prison at Stormcage. Big snog with the Doctor! (52nd century – Day of the Moon)
Receives phone call from Winston Churchill at Stormcage, warning her that the TARDIS will explode (52nd century – The Pandorica Opens)
Steals a Van Gogh painting from Starship UK (33rd century – The Pandorica Opens)
Leaves a message for the Doctor on Planet One, then travels to Stonehenge on Earth and poses as Cleopatra to wait for the Doctor (AD 102 – The Pandorica Opens)
Opens the Pandorica (AD 102 – The Pandorica Opens)
Gets trapped in a time loop inside the TARDIS as it begins to explode (2010 – The Pandorica Opens)
With the universe dying around them, is rescued from the exploding TARDIS by the Doctor (1996 – The Big Bang)
Kills a stone Dalek and helps the Doctor sacrifice himself to restart the universe (1996 – The Big Bang)
Witnesses the wedding reception of her soon-to-be parents in Leadworth (2010 – The Big Bang)
Back to Stormcage (51st century)
Recruited by the Church to investigate the starship Byzantium and its deadly cargo (51st century – Time of the Angels / Flesh and Stone)
Summons the Do
ctor to help defeat the Weeping Angel in the hold of the Byzantium on the planet Alfava Metraxis (51st century – Time of the Angels / Flesh and Stone)
Pardoned and becomes a professor of archaeology (51st century)
Zips back to 1938 to investigate a suspected Weeping Angel invasion of New York. Sets up the Melody Malone Detective Agency and gets trapped due to temporal disturbances caused by the Angels (1938 – The Angels Take Manhattan)
Escapes the 1930s with her husband, but loses her parents to the touch of an Angel (1938 – The Angels Take Manhattan)
Writes a pulp detective novel based on the events in 1938 which will eventually lead the Doctor to travel back in time (The Angels Take Manhattan)
The Doctor takes River to the Singing Towers of Darillium. Crying, her hubby gives her a modified version of his sonic screwdriver. It is the last time she sees him in his eleventh body (51st century)
Hired to lead an expedition to The Library, which has been invaded by the Vashta Nerada (51st century – Silence in the Library)
At The Library, River meets the Tenth Doctor. She’s shocked to see how young he is. For him, it is their first chronological meeting. For her, it’s the last (51st century – Silence in the Library)
River Song dies. But… (51st century – Forest of the Dead)
COMPANION ROLL CALL: THE 2010s
AMELIA (AMY) POND
played by KAREN GILLAN
First regular Doctor Who appearance: The Eleventh Hour (2010)
Final regular Doctor Who appearance: The Angels Take Manhattan (2012)
Karen Gillan developed a love of acting at an early age, and trained at the Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts. Following graduation, Karen worked successfully as a model, but acting remained her first love and TV roles soon came her way, including The Kevin Bishop Show and a small role in the 2008 Doctor Who episode The Fires of Pompeii. Two years later she beat fierce competition to win the role of companion Amy Pond opposite Matt Smith as the Eleventh Doctor. Karen left Doctor Who in 2012, moving on to an already lengthy list of movie and television roles, including TV drama We’ll Take Manhattan, the comedy series A Touch of Cloth and the film Not Another Happy Ending (2013).
Amelia Pond was the girl who waited… waited for the raggedy man who had appeared in her garden when she was just a child. Amy’s travels with the Doctor were everything she’d hoped for and more, and when her fiancé Rory joined the TARDIS crew, her life was complete. She may have been a trap set by the Doctor’s enemies to prevent the universe being destroyed, but that didn’t matter. Amy was never going to give up her adventures with the Doctor – something terrible would have to tear them apart. Something terrible, like a Weeping Angel…
And another thing: Karen Gillan’s mum, a massive Doctor Who fan, tried to persuade her to change her mind and stay on the TARDIS.
RORY WILLIAMS
played by ARTHUR DARVILL
First regular Doctor Who appearance: The Eleventh Hour (2010)
Final regular Doctor Who appearance: The Angels Take Manhattan (2012)
Thomas Arthur Darvill’s love of performing stemmed from accompanying his mother on tours around the country with the Cannon Hill Puppet Theatre. He landed a job as an in-vision continuity announcer for ITV children’s television in 2000, before moving on to stage roles and then TV, including Little Dorrit in 2008. Following his two-and-a-half year stint as Rory in Doctor Who, Arthur appeared opposite Billie Piper’s husband Laurence Fox on the London stage in Our Boys.
Nurse Rory Williams was always in love with Amy Pond. It took a while for the penny to drop for Amy, but she eventually cottoned on, and fell in love with him. After a rocky start involving the near-end of the universe, Rory was delighted when he finally married Amy, and they remained friends and companions of the Doctor as husband and wife. Rory’s time with the Doctor was only brought to an end when a Weeping Angel blasted him back in time, but he would always be with Amy Pond, the girl he waited for.
And another thing: Arthur Darvill has continued his Doctor Who connections appearing in ITV’s Broadchurch (2013), written by Who writer Chris Chibnall and starring David Tennant.
THEY KEEP KILLING RORY
It’s very unusual that a companion of the Doctor is killed in action. But Rory Williams seems to make a habit of it – except, he kept coming back to life.
Amy’s Choice – killed in a cloud of green gas by Mrs Poggit (an alien Eknodine), though this was in a dream world.
Cold Blood – blasted by a Silurian’s energy weapon, then absorbed by the crack in time and erased from existence. Rory later came back to life as an Auton duplicate of a Roman Centurion in AD 102. Which also died.
Day of the Moon – shot down by US agents and taken away in a body bag. But it turned out to be a ruse and he was all right really.
The Doctor’s Wife – aged to death in the corridors of the TARDIS, a trick played by the evil entity House several times.
The Angels Take Manhattan – leapt to certain death from an apartment block rooftop, erasing the time line and arriving back in 2012.
The Angels Take Manhattan – blasted back in time by a Weeping Angel, eventually dying for real at the age of 82 in the 1980s. The discovery of his gravestone caused him to be caught by the Angel in the first place. Wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey.
THE ELEVENTH DOCTOR’S RULES FOR COMPANIONS
Rule 1: ‘The Doctor lies.’
Rule 7: ‘Never run when you are scared.’
Rule 27. ‘Never knowingly be serious.’
Rule 408. ‘Time is not the boss of you.’
OCCASIONAL COMPANIONS
Every now and then the Doctor meets that special someone on his wanderings. They may not leave with him, but they make as much impact as his regular companions.
SARA KINGDOM played by JEAN MARSH
Sara was a Space Special Security agent sent by Mavic Chen, the treacherous Guardian of the Solar System, to assassinate the Doctor and his friends. After killing her own brother, agent Bret Vyon, Sara realised the error of her ways and helped the Doctor defeat Chen and his allies the Daleks. She was killed by the Daleks’ Time Destructor.
ASTRID PETH played by KYLIE MINOGUE
Astrid was a waitress aboard the doomed Titanic star cruiser. When asteroids scuppered the ship, she helped the Doctor get survivors to safety and sacrificed herself to stop the villainous Max Capricorn.
JACKSON LAKE played by DAVID MORRISSEY
When 19th-century mathematics tutor Jackson took his family to Victorian London, a chance encounter with the Cybermen changed his life for ever. When his wife was killed, Jackson attempted to rescue his son by discharging an infostamp containing data about the Doctor. Instead, the information, stolen from the Daleks, flooded his mind. Unable to accept the loss of his family, Jackson retreated into a fugue state, believing that he was a newly regenerated incarnation of the Time Lord. Adopting his very own companion, Rosita, Jackson encountered the real Doctor and eventually faced the truth about himself, and was reunited with his son.
LADY CHRISTINA DE SOUZA played by MICHELLE RYAN
A professional thief who stole for the thrill of the chase, Christina stole the Cup of Athelstan from the International Gallery in London. Running from the police, she jumped onto the number 200 bus but found herself transported to a distant planet as the vehicle plunged through a wormhole. Luckily for Christina – and the other passengers – the Doctor was also on board.
CAPTAIN ADELAIDE BROOKE played by LINDSAY DUNCAN
A survivor of the 2009 Dalek invasion of Earth, Adelaide Brooke dreamt of exploring space. Following stints at Cambridge and Rice Universities, she joined NASA and became the first woman to land on Mars. 17 years later, in 2058, she established the first human colony, Bowie Base One, on the red planet. According to established history the colony was lost the following year. When the Tenth Doctor landed on the very day Bowie Base One was due to be destroyed – a fixed point in time – the Doctor decided to play god and returned Ade
laide to Earth. Appalled by the Doctor’s flawed arrogance, Adelaide took her own life, thus protecting future history. Stunned, the Doctor realised that he’d finally gone too far.
WILFRED MOTT played by BERNARD CRIBBINS
The Doctor first met Donna Noble’s grandfather during a transmat outing from the Titanic. The newspaper seller, who had served in the army as a young man but was proud never to have taken a life, missed Donna’s first wedding due to a bout of Spanish flu. He met the Time Lord again after his granddaughter visited home during her travels in the TARDIS. In December 2010, Wilf started having nightmares about the Master and, believing the Doctor could help, formed the ‘Silver Cloak’, a crack team of OAPs, to find the Time Lord. Together, the two old soldiers stopped the return of Gallifrey, although Wilf become trapped in a radiation booth. The Doctor saved him, absorbing a fatal dose of radiation that triggered his tenth regeneration.
CLARA OSWALD played by JENNA-LOUISE COLEMAN
Born 23 November 1866, Clara Oswald encountered the Eleventh Doctor while living a curious double life: she worked as a barmaid at the Rose and Crown, but she was also ‘Miss Montague’, a governess for the Latimer children. Intrigued by the Doctor, whose TARDIS was parked on a solidified cloud high above the streets of London, she all but forced her way into his hermit-like existence. On the brink of accepting a TARDIS key and joining the Doctor, Clara was grabbed by an animated ice sculpture of the Latimer’s previous governess and fell to her death. But before she breathed her last, Clara told the Doctor to ‘Run, you clever boy… and remember’, the very same words said to him by the doomed Oswin Oswald on the Dalek Asylum. Fascinated, the Doctor headed back into time and space to unravel the mystery of Clara Oswin Oswald…
FAMILY TIES
‘I was going to do shepherd’s pie. All of us, a proper sit down…’